New Report Shows How Walmart Forces Its Employees to Live on the Dole

Walmart's wages and benefits are so low that many of its employees are forced to turn to the government for aid, costing taxpayers between $900,000 and $1.75 million per store, according to a report released last week by congressional Democrats.

Using data from Wisconsin, which has the most complete and recent state-level Medicaid data available, the Democrats' report finds that 3,216 of Wisconsin’s 29,457 Walmart workers are enrolled in the state's Medicaid program. That figure that balloons to 9,207 when Walmart employees' children and adult dependents are taken into account. The study also looked at the costs of other taxpayer-funded programs that Walmart employees on state Medicaid could also use. Here's the tab:

At least $251,706 for state Medicaid

Between $25,461 and $58,228 for reduced-price school lunches

Between $12,938 and $29,588 for reduced-price school breakfasts

Between $155,406 and $355,350 for subsidized Section 8 housing

Between $72,160 and $165,000 for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which gives money to low-income workers

Between $11,414 and $26,100 for assistance under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps poor families pay for heating costs

Between $96,007 and $219,528 for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits (food stamps)

Between $279,450 an $639,090 for Wisconsin Shares Child Care Subsidy Program benefits, which helps low-income workers pay for child care

At a minimum, Walmart workers in Wisconsin known to be enrolled in Medicaid rely on at least $9.5 million a year in taxpayer funds. If the study's low-end estimate of $900,000 per store in taxpayer-funded benefits is right, Walmart's 300 Wisconsin stores could be forcing the state to provide as much as $67.5 million per year in benefits that employees of Walmart's higher-wage competitors, such as Costco, don't need.

House Democrats are pushing two pieces of legislation that would address the drag Walmart's low wages place on the economy. One would raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10; another would allow employees to share salary information, bolstering their bargaining power. A study published last year found that raising average retail wage salaries from $21,000 to $25,000 a year would create 100,000 new jobs and give a $13.5 billion annual boost to the overall economy.

Walmart has pushed back against the Dems' report. "Unfortunately there are some people who base their opinions on misconceptions rather than facts, and that is why we recently launched a campaign to show people the unlimited opportunities that exist at Walmart," Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for the company, told the Huffington Post. "We provide a range of jobs—from people starting out stocking shelves to Ph.D.'s in engineering and finance. We provide education assistance and skill training and, most of all, a chance to move up the ranks."

Research suggests that Walmart could increase wages significantly and still turn a profit. But the company has worked for years to avoid doing that.An internal memo obtained by the Huffington Post in November,"Field Non-Exempt Associate Pay Plan Fiscal Year 2013," outlined how Walmart capped raises for hourly workers, lowing costs and bolstering their bottom line profits. In 2012, the company's net sales were higher than Norway's entire economic output.

You miss the part of the article that states that union membership is at a 97 year low? I think its time you found a new bogeyman.

I'll leave you with my favorite union quote:

Union leader Walter Reuther was once told by an Automobile executive "You are going to have a lot of trouble unionizing these robots." To which Reuther replied "Not as much trouble as you are going to have selling them cars."

What’s more, Costco has continued to pay its workers decently even in the face of pressure to stop. Ever since the company went public in 1985, Wall Street investors have urged Costco executives to lower wages and cut health benefits, which are also relatively generous, according to Businessweek. Instead, the company’s former CEO and co-founder gave workers a raise every three years.

Costco’s insistence on treating its workers well hasn’t come at the expense of the company’s bottom line. The retailer’s profit jumped 19 percent to $459 million last quarter, while Walmart’s sales suffered during the same period.

In addition, Target, another Costco competitor, slashed its earnings forecast for the year after its profits suffered because customers cut back. Costco reported Thursday that last month's same-store sales grew 5 percent

2012:

In a nutshell Costco has borrowed money to pay shareholders a big dividend now, before Obama's big hikes in capital gains takes effect. Costco Chairman Jim Sinegal is an Obama supporter. From the article:

When President Obama needed a business executive to come to his campaign defense, Jim Sinegal was there. The Costco COST +2.00% co-founder, director and former CEO even made a prime-time speech at the Democratic Party convention in Charlotte. So what a surprise this week to see that Mr. Sinegal and the rest of the Costco board voted to give themselves a special dividend to avoid Mr. Obama's looming tax increase. Is this what the President means by "tax fairness"?One of the biggest dividend winners will be none other than Mr. Sinegal, who owns about two million shares, while his wife owns another 84,669. At $7 a share, the former CEO will take home roughly $14 million. At a 15% tax rate he'll get to keep nearly $12 million of that windfall, while at next year's rate of 43.4% he'd take home only about $8 million. That's a lot of extra cannoli. To sum up: Here we have people at the very top of the top 1% who preach about tax fairness voting to write themselves a huge dividend check to avoid the Obama tax increase they claim it is a public service to impose on middle-class Americans who work for 30 years and finally make $250,000 for a brief window in time.

I personally dont care for walmart but, no one is forced to work there and they improve the quality of life for a lot of people by providing less expensive goods which makes what little money they have provide more for them.

The progressive view on workers here is clearly Marxist : "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

Progressives do not want people to rise or fall on their own merits. Rather, they consider individuals as drones and dependents who must be paid high wages by government coercion, not based on their individual contribution to the success of the business.

Employment is a contract between parties. Walmart employees can and do improve their station in life by taking responsibility for their own lives.

Forcing Walmart to raise wages to levels far above what such workers contribute will clearly mean far fewer new jobs. And fewer opportunities for Walmart workers to rise on their own merits.

Walmart is a private business, they have no obligation to pay high wages to keep people off welfare. Walmart is not responsible for the doubling of food stamp recipients. That is Obama's failed economic policies.

What’s more, Costco has continued to pay its workers decently even in the face of pressure to stop. Ever since the company went public in 1985, Wall Street investors have urged Costco executives to lower wages and cut health benefits, which are also relatively generous, according to Businessweek. Instead, the company’s former CEO and co-founder gave workers a raise every three years.

Costco’s insistence on treating its workers well hasn’t come at the expense of the company’s bottom line. The retailer’s profit jumped 19 percent to $459 million last quarter, while Walmart’s sales suffered during the same period.

In addition, Target, another Costco competitor, slashed its earnings forecast for the year after its profits suffered because customers cut back. Costco reported Thursday that last month's same-store sales grew 5 percent

Have you ever been to a Costco..? I belong to one and the difference between Costco and Walmart is amazing. The cleanliness and quality one can find in Costco just can't be matched at Walmart. The employees are always happy, friendly and knowledgeable.

I think if more people understood the power of their own spending they would stop shopping at places like Walmart. I stopped shopping there a while ago when I found about the games they play with workers. I choose not to support what Walmart stands for..both with their products and their policies.

Unions have decimated the American economy, but they still want to ruin a great American success story , WalMart.

How is it a success story if it shifts the cost of its profits onto the taxpayer?

In the minds of the wingnuts..Walmart is a success because of their astronomically high profits. That those profits come at a rather large cost to society is lost on them. I doubt many Costco employees have to rely on government subsidies to make ends meet...yet Costco is still able to bring in bigger profits every year.

The progressive view on workers here is clearly Marxist : "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"

Progressives do not want people to rise or fall on their own merits. Rather, they consider individuals as drones and dependents who must be paid high wages by government coercion, not based on their individual contribution to the success of the business.

Employment is a contract between parties. Walmart employees can and do improve their station in life by taking responsibility for their own lives.

Forcing Walmart to raise wages to levels far above what such workers contribute will clearly mean far fewer new jobs. And fewer opportunities for Walmart workers to rise on their own merits.

Walmart is a private business, they have no obligation to pay high wages to keep people off welfare. Walmart is not responsible for the doubling of food stamp recipients. That is Obama's failed economic policies.

See, here's your problem.

Costco is a SUCCESSFUL private company who defies your ignorant ideology.

You just can't stand the fact that such a company exists. A company that not only believes that a rising tide lifts all boats but proves it successfully everday.

You would prefer every company, except yours of course, to pay wages on par with a third world country.

You rant and rave about working people on food stamps and yet you stubbornly ignore the facts because it would interfere with your blind hatred for people who don't make as much money as you do. You just have a need to hate someone.

People at Walmart, hard working, good citizens have no choice but to accept gov't assistance to feed their families. That is a fact. And you kiss the backsides of the owners of those companies for no other reason than that they are rich. You have a warped, perverted hatred for the people who put in the long hours to make Walmart successful yet are compensated with poverty level wages, forcing them to foodstamps.

That is the glaring streak of insecurity that runs through the wingnuts in general, and you in particular. You know that those people that you idolize, solely for their money, would never let you near their country clubs or through the front door of their house. They won't give you a second thought and would lump you in with those "takers" that you idiots like to blindly rant about. So, in order to be more like those "rich", your betters, you need to act like them. You need your own class of people that you can look down on and disparage. You try and emulate the same disdain for people as those you idolize, for no other reason than the amount of money they make.

Here's a newsflash for diffident people like you: No matter how much you try and put down those working poor, it won't make you any better. In fact it has the opposite effect. It just highlights your shallow craveness and how desperate you are to try and convince yourself that you're better than somebody, anybody, else and the only way you can do that is by disparaging people who make an honest living but are paid so little they can't feed their kids. You to try fill your lack of confidence with a hatred of people based on nothing more than their income.

You are a sad, insecure person who holds no value higher than wealth and who holds no value to a society, especially with your misdirected hate towards working Americans whose only "crime" is that they don't make as much money as you.

And this is no more evident than in your insecure, inept, inadequate political party, devoid of ideas and full hate for anyone and everyone that looks different or acts different or just wants to be different. Your inbred insecurity has reduced your party to a sideshow of obstruction, obfuscation and xenophobia.

The wingnuts have fallen so far from the party of Lincoln and St Ronnie that your are nothing but a gaggle of idiots trying to out do each other as to who can be the most mysoginistic or xenophobic or just plain misanthropic.

And you might want to revisit the undeniably great President who started your party and his idea of labor versus capital.

Or then again, he would probaly just be a RINO in your perveted world of hatred.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

What’s more, Costco has continued to pay its workers decently even in the face of pressure to stop. Ever since the company went public in 1985, Wall Street investors have urged Costco executives to lower wages and cut health benefits, which are also relatively generous, according to Businessweek. Instead, the company’s former CEO and co-founder gave workers a raise every three years.

Costco’s insistence on treating its workers well hasn’t come at the expense of the company’s bottom line. The retailer’s profit jumped 19 percent to $459 million last quarter, while Walmart’s sales suffered during the same period.

In addition, Target, another Costco competitor, slashed its earnings forecast for the year after its profits suffered because customers cut back. Costco reported Thursday that last month's same-store sales grew 5 percent

Have you ever been to a Costco..? I belong to one and the difference between Costco and Walmart is amazing. The cleanliness and quality one can find in Costco just can't be matched at Walmart. The employees are always happy, friendly and knowledgeable.

I think if more people understood the power of their own spending they would stop shopping at places like Walmart. I stopped shopping there a while ago when I found about the games they play with workers. I choose not to support what Walmart stands for..both with their products and their policies.

I also go to COSTCO, and haven't been in a Walmart for years. However, this idea that Walmart is shiftring the burden onto the taxpayers is simply foolish.

Besides, let's just say that's what Walmart is doing. Are not the Walmart employees being made whole? After all, government is taking care of them. That is the progressive goal, is it not? Taking care of people because they can't take care of themselves? It is the whole reason for every expansion of government, including Obamacare.

I thought that progressives would be cheering this type of activity on, not condemning it.